Mali cut off by neighbors

Leaders of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc agreed to a complete embargo on Mali on Monday, closing borders to the landlocked country and freezing access to its account at the regional bank.

"All diplomatic, economic, financial measures and others are applicable from [Monday] and will not be lifted until the reestablishment of constitutional order," said Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, the chairman of ECOWAS, after an emergency meeting of the group in Dakar, Senegal.

Soldiers seized control of Mali on March 21, deposing President Amadou Toumai Toure. Their leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, said he was motivated by the government's handling of an uprising by separatist Tuareg rebels in the country's north. The rebels are seeking independence for an area of Mali they refer to as Azawad.

Last-minute move

In a move likely meant to placate Mali's neighbors, Sanogo pledged on Sunday to set up a national convention to agree on a transitional government that would usher in free and fair elections and announced he would reinstate the country's 1992 constitution.

ECOWAS had given the renegade soldiers a 72-hour deadline to restore civilian rule in Mali or face sanctions or possible military intervention.

Meanwhile, Tuareg separatists and Islamists took control of the ancient city of Timbuktu over the weekend. The group, with their ranks and weaponry bolstered by fighters returning from last year's Libyan conflict, had also taken the regional capitals Kidal and Gao. None of the three settlements had fallen in previous rebellions.

One of the group's leader told Reuters on Monday that the rebels did not intend to push further south, saying they now aimed to consolidate control of the region.

ncy/acb (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)